


His Guilt Is Not His Own

by KZDipped



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Brainwashing, Future AU, Guilt, Memory Loss, Mind Control, Rebellion, Rebels, Red Army, Switching Sides, all that good stuff, green resistance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 14:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KZDipped/pseuds/KZDipped
Summary: When Tom disappears in the clutches of the Red Army for six weeks, how can Edd and Matt cope with the aftermath?





	His Guilt Is Not His Own

“I’m sorry.”

  
Edd glanced over at Tom, curious at this remark then more understanding. He sighed, leaving his chair at the kitchen table they all now shared, and making his way to the couch, which again: the trio was now sharing amongst themselves. He knelt down in front of Tom, who had made no effort to look at Edd yet, just continuing to stare at his own shaking hands. “What is it Tom?”

  
Tom shook his head, still staring downward. His electronic ‘eyes’ blinked softly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to.”

  
Edd placed a hand on Tom’s knee, frowning when he flinched. “Tom you haven’t done anything. Remember, we talked about this yesterday? Whatever happened, it wasn’t you, okay?”

  
Now Tom looked up, and his expression was nearly angry. “I was, there, for weeks! I can’t remember it, and you’re telling me this- this guilt feeling means absolutely nothing?!”

  
Edd waited for the outburst to be over; he had dealt with this yesterday, and the day before; really every day since Tom had “escaped”; he suspected this had been more of a return-to-sender than anything. Tom had been on a simple recon mission with what existed of their tiny ‘rebellion’ against red army when he had been taken, kidnapped is the better term. For a month and a half he had been considered dead, mia, by his friends; then he reappeared, right outside the main base, all out of sorts and outfitted with the strange goggles he wore now.

  
The goggles don’t come off. They tried. So, now that one of the rebel leaders was outfitted with red tech and couldn’t be guaranteed safe, the other two leaders were taking it in turn to watch after him until some kind of resolution came to pass. Edd got days, Matt got nights. And really, neither of them might think there was anything wrong with their friend; besides these outbursts. Yeah… apologizing for something none of them knows about, especially after all these events: fairly suspicious, as much as they tried to reassure Tom of the opposite.

  
But of course Edd wasn’t going to change his tune now. He got up, taking a seat beside Tom now, and rubbing a gentle hand across his back. “No one’s mad at you, is what I mean to say; Matt and I, we’re just glad to have you back.” Tom fell quiet again, leaving Edd with a silence he wasn’t sure he wanted to feel. “Look, Matt and I were talking and… there’s a mission, in about a week, that we should really all be on.”

  
“You mean you two?”

  
“No, I mean all of us.” Edd hesitated, watching Tom’s reaction. “Together.”

  
“Isn’t that a bad idea? I mean, aren’t I still considered ‘suspicious’?”

  
“Yes, but… it’s a simple operation, just taking a red base, but it would be great for troop morale if we were all three there.” Tom still looked skeptical, so Edd continued, “We wouldn’t even have to split up! Our plan is to send most of the soldiers in, then go in to take the command center. Easy peasy, just like old times.”

  
Tom smirked a little at that last comment. “I mean, if you think that’s fine, I really want to. Just make sure it’s a solid plan I guess. The I’d rather not have to lose another six weeks of my life in some prison cell.”

  
Edd nodded, smiling. “A plan it is then. I’ll take you to our command center tomorrow for a proper debrief.” 

* * *

 

A week later, Edd wasn’t sure he had made the right decision. Right now he sat with Tom looking out over the enemy base, as their army prepared around them. “I know nothing has really happened since… y’know, but if you feel like something’s wrong…”

  
“I’ll be fine,” Tom reassured Edd, his voice quiet against the raucous backdrop of their army readying. “It’s good, I needed to get out of the house.” They were situated atop a hill overlooking the base, out of sight at the moment but it would not stay that way.

  
Edd nodded, but his feeling of dread didn’t dissipate. There was something off about today, this was simply supposed to be an ambush; but the amount of patrols circling the enemy base before them seemed disproportionate. Too late to turn back now. “Advance!”

  
The shout triggered a round of overhead fire, as the farthest rear troop provided cover for those now rushing the armed walls before them. The outer wall was taken quickly, although not as fast as anticipated; before long second and third groups were in, then the trio of leaders.

  
The three navigated the hallways expertly, taking out any remaining enemy troops when they came across them and making quick time to their destination. They had done this before, taking control rooms; it seemed like a very basic task at this point. What made this special was Tom’s presence. Not having him along on missions for the past two months had been terrible, especially when he had been assumed dead. Now once more they worked like a well-oiled machine, letting no enemy slip past them and assuming their goal in record time.

  
Now they sat around the control room, having incapacitated the guards, and watching the screens before them for any sign of unexpected trouble. As expected though, there was nothing; their troops overwhelmed any resistance, and before long it looked as though they were easily in the win.

  
“See, what did I tell you guys? Easy mission!” Matt was reclining against the control panel, not even bothering to look at the screens behind him anymore.

  
“Yeah, we haven’t exactly won yet though,” Tom said, although there was a smile on his face. He really had enjoyed the mission, and as Edd watched him happily, he thought they should have taken him out again sooner. “Look, there’s another soldier there- oh, nevermind.” The trio shared a laugh, taking the privilege of a victory amongst themselves.

 

Shortlived. Suddenly there was a shout, an audible one, from just down the hall, and it felt as though an earthquake impacted the building. A glance was exchanged between the three, before attention was turned back to the monitors. By these, it appeared reinforcements from Red Army had just arrived. “That doesn’t make any sense, this is a relatively small base!” Edd was shocked.

  
“Well there they are; there’s no point thinking about that now!” Tom stood up, readying his pistol and approaching the door. He swung it open, and immediately backed away.

  
Tord stood there, his robotic hand poised as though to knock. He smirked at the shocked trio, who were now standing together just a few feet away. “Hello, old-“

  
“Don’t you start!” Matt had his gun aimed at the enemy leader, and he looked _furious_. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now.”

  
Not a beat was lost; Tord simply raised his other hand, in which sat a small remote control, one large red button dominating the rest of the device. “Unless you’d like to see what this does now.”

  
Matt seemed torn, but relaxed his stance slightly. Edd didn’t. “Why are you suddenly taking an interest in our affairs? We take land from you for months and you don’t show, until now!”

  
“Why, this is a special night though, isn’t it? After all, dear Tom here has been out of commission, correct?”

  
Tom glared at Tord, his own gun raised. “And who’s fault is that.”

  
Tord ignored this remark, continuing on. “And I simply had to see the three of you again, all in one space.” Seeing their unamused reactions, he said, “Fine. If none of you want to play along, then let’s get down to business. I’m here to claim a debt.” And with no further dialogue, he pressed the button on the remote.

  
For a long moment, nothing happened. The three stared the one down, and tried to assess what on earth that button was meant to do. Then Tom gasped. A hand flew up to his visor, which wasn’t displaying correctly; glitches ran rampant across the screen, hiding the ‘eye’ effects there just a moment before. As Edd turned and reached out for him Tom fell to his knees, obviously trying to keep it together but extremely close to collapsing.

  
Tord smiled, watching the trio merge in on each other. A few more seconds, and… “Tom. Come here.”

  
Up til this point, Tom had seemed panicked, fighting against whatever his visor was doing. His shoulders shook, and he seemed unable to hear either of his friends beside him. But as soon as Tord addressed him he stopped. Standing up, pushing past Edd and Matt, he walked toward the leader calmly, quietly. Edd and Matt stood themselves, shocked. Something was clearly wrong.

  
Tom came to a stop beside Tord, then turned to face the other two. His expression was cold, but that wasn’t the most obvious difference; his visor had turned from green light to red. Edd stared, shocked. “Tom?” But he didn’t acknowledge Edd’s words.

  
Tord laughed at the expression on Edd and Matt’s faces. “Ah, amazing yes? Surely you were expecting this though, after all: why do you think I would enable him with this tech?”

  
“Give him back!” Edd was scared, that was a good word for it; he didn’t know how to fix mind control, and already Tom didn’t even seem to recognize him. He was decidedly staring at Tord now, trying to ignore the reality of his very lost friend.  


  
Matt jumped in. “Why would you even send him to us if you were just gonna- take him?”

  
Tord shrugged, glancing over his new soldier approvingly. “I didn’t need him yet. And here he is, you two kept him in great condition, thank you.”

 

  
Edd positively growled, stepping forward in unison with Matt, but Tord merely raised his hand, and suddenly Tom had his gun trained on them. The pair stopped, watching carefully, but Tom didn’t react further. Obviously there were a few basic commands ingrained in Tom, and provided they didn’t push boundaries, Tom would not shoot. Hopefully. If Tord didn’t command differently.

  
Watching them obey this prompt, Tord stepped forward himself, Tom following this movement albeit not lowering the weapon. “Now Edd, I think you’d better get going. Granted, I understand this move may not exactly be fair, in this little war of ours; so you may leave, take your army and retreat. I’ll gladly take this up again once you’ve… recovered.”

  
Edd didn’t move a muscle, trying to make eye contact with Tom now. “Tom, snap out of it, come on! You’re still with us right, you’re not- you c-can’t…” Tom wasn’t showing any sign of recognition, of even hearing Edd’s words, despite perhaps a slight shifting of the weapon in his hand. “I know you’re still in there! Don’t let him win, come on-“

  
Tord, tiring of this, snapped his fingers; where there had just been a threat before, the gun in Tom’s hand suddenly sounded, sending the two rebels before him sprawling to the ground in defence. “That was a warning shot. Leave, now.”

  
The pair hesitated just a moment longer, before Matt was finally pulling Edd up, and out, and away from the tragedy they would be unable to forget for the lonely years to come.

  
Tord watched them go, nodding when he finally figured they were gone. “At ease, soldier.” He took the remote from his pocket again, pressing the big button once more.

  
Immediately Tom gasped, hand flying to his head and dropping the pistol previously held. He looked as though he would faint, prompting Tord to step to his side. “Wh- Red?”

  
“Yes yes- just a sec, let’s go over here so you don’t collapse on me.” He led Tom to the nearest wall, letting him slide against that to a sitting position. His ‘eyes’, glowing bright green again, tried to take in the surroundings. Tord knelt in front of him, trying to keep the smile on his face from growing too wide. “Are you alright?”

  
“I- where are we?”

  
“Oh,a base on the outskirts of London; do you not remember the mission?”

  
“No; I mean, kind of, it’s just…” Tom stopped trying to think his way through this and rested his head on one knee instead. “My head hurts, what happened?”

  
“Some enemy soldier came up behind you, tried to choke you out I think; took care of him though. You should keep a better look out.”

  
Tom nodded, beginning to understand. “What about the enemy troops, shouldn’t we be moving or something?”

  
“Actually, I do believe-“ A distant horn sounded, accompanied by the sound of soldiers shouting and trying to organize, and Tord continued, “There it is, looks like we’ve won. Let’s head back, hmm?”

 

  
Tom nodded, standing up a little shakily; but already he was looking more confident, more sure of himself. “Yeah, let’s go home.”

 

* * *

 

Tom tried to read the papers before him, he really did. Some report from a squad under his command, for some recon mission he had sent them on, or Red had; he couldn’t remember. His vision felt almost as though it was blurring, he couldn’t focus on the words before him. An oh so familiar feeling was burning through his chest again and he couldn’t help but acknowledge it, feed it with his confusion and fear.

  
A rustle of movement across the desk; Red looked him, curious. “Thomas? Is something the matter?”

  
Tom opened his mouth as if to reply, or at least correct the leader on the use of his full name, but nothing came out. He looked down again, trying to decide what on earth he needed to do, to get this feeling to go away. Peace, for once, that would be nice. “I’m… sorry?”

  
He could feel Red staring him down, analyzing him, deciding whether to pursue or not. “For what?”

  
Tom just shook his head. That was the problem, he felt all this guilt, and he could not possibly think as to why. He had thought for a long time it must just be the typical soldier complex, guilt over lives taken or decisions made on the battlefield, but he experienced those feelings too, separate from this. The closest conclusion he had come to was that it felt worse around Red Leader, there was something to do with him.

  
The room was still for a moment, then Tord stood. He circled the desk, coming to a stop beside Tom, and laid his robotic hand on Tom’s shoulder.

  
“Tom. Blue. You are with me, correct?”

  
Tom nodded.

  
“Then there is nothing to apologize for. Your loyalty is all I ask.” Red’s hand slipped off his shoulder, and suddenly Tom could breathe again. “Do let me know if those thoughts persist though. I can... fix it.”

  
Another nod, and Tord returned to his previous position. Those two words had done a little to soothe his mind, and Tom turned back to the work before him. Even still though, the words haunted him in equal measure, repeating in the back of his mind in some kind of annoying chant.

  
___I’m sorry._  
_I’m sorry._  
_I’m sorry.  
_I’m sorry E-__

**Author's Note:**

> One-shot, I didn't think it would go this far tbh but I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
